By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Department of Transport confirmed a Russian cargo aircraft, which has been blacklisted by the US, was offloading transport general cargo, civilian helicopters, and acrobatic aeroplanes in Upington, Northern Cape.
Collen Msibi, department spokesperson says Abakan Air (Russian Ilyushin IL-76) had applied for a foreign operator permit on 9 September and this was issued on 23 September to transport general cargo, civilian helicopters and acrobatic aeroplanes.
“It must also be noted that the South African government has not blacklisted the operator.
Furthermore, we have no knowledge or receipt of any information from any other government that this operator has been blacklisted, “Msibi said.
After landing in Upington, the Il-76 refuelled at Lanseria and then departed the country.
The flight comes three years after a Russian cargo ship docked at a naval base near Cape Town, sparking a diplomatic row between Pretoria and Washington.
The former US Ambassador to South Africa Ruben Brigety claimed weapons were loaded onto the ship. The fallout jeopardized the AGOA, the preferential trade access to the world’s biggest economy.
A judicial probe initiated by President Cyril Ramaphosa found no evidence to back up the US ambassador’s allegations.
Relations between Washington and Pretoria have deteriorated further since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. Trump froze US aid to South Africa and hit the country with the highest import tariffs in sub-Saharan Africa, after falsely claiming that the government is presiding over a genocide of White Afrikaans farmers and has offered them a refugee status.
Trump has also criticized South Africa’s Black economic empowerment laws aimed at redressing the impact apartheid-era discrimination. In May, Trump berated Ramaphosa at an Oval Office meeting.
Last week, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met Parks Tau, Trade minister, in Washington DC, a sign of possible rapprochement after months of frosty relations between the two nations.
South Africa’s trade team earlier submitted its own proposal to the United States, which included making it easier for American companies to sell chicken meat and pork in South Africa as well as a pledge to buy liquefied natural gas from the United States, the government has said.
Two-way trade between the nations totaled $21.6 billion in 2024, with South Africa enjoying a $7.7 billion (R133.49 billion) surplus, International Monetary Fund data shows.